When I look back at my education, I can't clearly remember a single teaching supplement that I used, but I can remember the teachers that chose to make a difference.

iBooks 2 is not going to change that.

I wasn't a big fan of English class, but one of my favorites classes overall was 12th Grade English because of the teacher. I don't think giving me an iPad in the other X number of English classes I took would have changed my opinion.

I wish Apple the best on this endeavor, but I'm a little skeptical.

I'm glad you got to go to school in a time when education wasn't under attack and teachers had the classroom sizes and resources to give you that great experience.
Today teachers need all the help they can get.

Either way, I think this will be great for schools (like mine) planning on completely moving away from text and exercise books to iPads and Macs. This is technology, if used correctly, could really move schools 10 years ahead of where they are now.

Respectfully disagree. Its not the books or the lack of computers; its the 'system of education'. In most contries it is the system that is broken.

Off topic - Not sure if anyone has seen this, its an overvue on Finland's schools. Very interesting and gives food for thought. They totally re-vamp'ed their education system in the '70's and are consistantly ranked in the top 5 or 10 in the world (no ipads!).

"Many students aren't interested in subjects taught in the classroom." Don't see how technology is going to change that. It may facilitate those who participate in the system, but not those who think outside of the box. Would Steve Jobs have participated? Remember, he quit college and trusted his own mind, vision.

Blah blah blah...

The problem is there are only a handful of Steve Jobs types born in each generation. Only a handful of people in any field at any one time have an innate sense of what is "good", "great" or simply "bad". The overwhelming vast majority (as in >95%) of people MUST first live in the box and learn what the box has to teach before stepping out.

Is tech a solution? Only partially. Teaching teachers how to teach and increasing salaries to get good teachers is also critical.

Poor eightzero lives in Seattle, which is a suburb of Redmond () where I suspect many are having trouble right now in the mental-horizon department. I have an Apple-hater ex-friend up there, that's why I suspect this. Does anyone who is on the scene there have confirmation of this?

And then you get the Spanish speakers who allow you to understand why Americans can't speak English any more. Thank you for illustrating my point, Senior stupido !

This looks like it hurts printers and distributors/resellers most. I expect the publishers to make even more money but without all the additional cost of putting out a new printed book every year or two.

Exactly. Revising text books annually is probably the most profitable scam in higher education. The publishers won't be giving it up any time soon.

Respectfully disagree. Its not the books or the lack of computers; its the 'system of education'. In most contries it is the system that is broken.

Off topic - Not sure if anyone has seen this, its an overvue on Finland's schools. Very interesting and gives food for thought. They totally re-vamp'ed their education system in the '70's and are consistantly ranked in the top 5 or 10 in the world (no ipads!).

"The system" is CERTAINLY broken if it hasn't taught you the difference between "its" and "it's" (it's a simple contraction), the spelling of "overview", the spelling of "consistently" or even "revamped". Maybe you can study your English education on the new iBook system, before sullying these forums with your "educational errors" again, hmmn ?

Underwhelmed. First time I've seen Apple announce something that is largely irrelevant. And with iBooks Author, now anyone can make a textbook with crappy content, and claim it is a "published textbook." I can see whole school districts in Kansas making science textbooks that omit evolution.

Nothing here, move along. Except of course, tho looks like Apple is returning to the Newton Model of business.

Are you being sarcastic, or making a conscious attempt to sound not-very-smart?

Tim Cook is gay, believes in climate change, and cares deeply about racial equality. Deal with it (and please spare us if you can't).

A lot of this sounds like what I've been reading is in the new EPUB 3 standard. So really this is just ibooks updated to support that. But most teachers etc have no clue what EPUB 3 is or that there is a standard so rather than go into that more technical focus they looked at what you can do with this new version of ibooks. Typical Apple announcement protocol, they never to rarely look at the specs but rather what you can do with it in a practical sense.

Now it needs the tools to help make these things. My mother is a PhD in Art/Art and Architectural History and her AAH dissertation is one of her textbooks in her senior seminar. She has been saying for months that she wants to ebook the text (which she expanded to about 800 pages with photos etc). We tried it with the Pages template and it was rather gross looking. And she doesn't really do tech to do it all by hand and I'm too tied up with my own work. Something as simple as Pages or iWeb but with better coding would be great for her. And if she could add photos, video etc it would be a killer book. She already does Keynotes of the content for the students to download off her site but it would be so much easier if it was just in the book.

And if my mother could find a use for this I'm sure other subjects like the sciences totally could. Heck I'm already thinking about Film Studies books. Imagine you are reading about a particular cinematography technique and you can watch a sample video of it. Or talking about a certain film maker and you can see clips of key film moments. Right there in the book.

The facts supporting a geocentric universe could also be presented in a more balanced manner. Leave out all those bits about the "theory of universal gravitation". Let them figure out for themselves what is true.

I dunno... the age of the earth (or anything really before written record of stuff) seems to be a moving target. WIth all the articles Ive read the age keeps being pushed further and further back. Before long they'll have the age of the earth as being in the order of quadrillions of years. In the end there is really no way of knowing as long as we rely on "educated guesses"/guesstimation. So if it MUST be included, then at least state that this is a "best guess" made by only some scientists instead of actual fact.

W. Pauli, winner of the Nobel prize in physics, said that all scientific methods fail when questions of origin are involved.

When I look back at my education, I can't clearly remember a single teaching supplement that I used, but I can remember the teachers that chose to make a difference.

iBooks 2 is not going to change that.

I wasn't a big fan of English class, but one of my favorites classes overall was 12th Grade English because of the teacher. I don't think giving me an iPad in the other X number of English classes I took would have changed my opinion.

I wish Apple the best on this endeavor, but I'm a little skeptical.

El Camino Real... por Espagnol ... mas o menos!

Edit: My favorite HS teacher was Mr. Brewer for Algebra I. He was portly, but very formal and always wore a dark pinstripe suit. Everything was fine unless he had to explain something using the blackboard...

We referred to him as Chalk-Balls Brewer!

Edit 2: Then there was Miss Michner my HS English teacher. I remember it well - a demonstration of a transitive verb:

Miss Michner: "A transitive verb shows action between a doer (subject) and a receiver (object). For example, the teacher slapped the boy... Wap!"

Boy: "Ow"

Miss Michner: "Oh, I am so sorry... I didn't mean to slap you... I was just demonstrating..."

--->REPEAT

Then Miss Wildegrube my 6th grade teacher. Growing up she had worked in a bakery, mixing dough by hand and had shoulders like a linebacker.

One day Kent was acting up in our class and after several ignored warnings, Miss Wildegrube took action. She lifted up Kent's chair/desk, with Kent in it, and deposited both in the hallway -- with one arm!

"Swift generally gets you to the right way much quicker." - auxio -

"The perfect [birth]day -- A little playtime, a good poop, and a long nap." - Tomato Greeting Cards -

I wasn't a big fan of English class, but one of my favorites classes overall was 12th Grade English because of the teacher.

In a class like English it wouldn't be any more than an ebook reader for the 10 novels you are reading. But in a class like Physics, or Geometry being able to have alternate ways to interact with the material could be just the thing for the kids that don't learn so great by reading words on a page. I wasn't really a science person until I got into photography and film so doing a lab didn't do much for me because I really didn't remember what happened after that moment and trying to write it down was a no go. If I could watch a video that reviewed what I had just created in lab, that would work for me. I'm sure I'm not the only student like that.

Or what about art and music classes. Many schools cut them due to lack of funding for supplies, they don't even have the funds for the books, the slides, the CDs etc for an art or music theory/history class. But if it was all there in a much cheaper package then they might be able to bring those classes back.

Or language classes where the text has audio samples to help kids with pronunciation.

That's an interesting thought. Those graphics calculators are expensive and it would be a shame if students had to jump between two apps to do some equations from a math textbook and calc app, but I have a feeling Apple won't give access to its iOS calc app in the SDK so I think they will have to create their own. I hope I'm wrong.

Yes, we should make learning more boring for students, not less¡

BTW, making a book more interactive doesn't necessarily make it more entertaining but it does add a new way to engage the student that could lead to a much faster and more thorough understanding of the content in ways printed material never could

We helped setup a Computer Lab of Apple ][ computers at Saratoga High School, Saratoga CA -- in 1980...

The displays were small Color TV sets.

The most amazing thing to see was a student leaning forward laughing and interacting with the "TV" -- as opposed to leaning back and vegetating!

"Swift generally gets you to the right way much quicker." - auxio -

"The perfect [birth]day -- A little playtime, a good poop, and a long nap." - Tomato Greeting Cards -

Evolution is a theory, intelligent design is a faith. There is a massive difference here because one can't be disconnected from the teaching of religion. It isn't so much that many want evolution to be taught in schools it is the issue of using public schools as a state sponsored forum to teach a religious view point that they object to. It is all about trying to keep our crumbling Constitution intact.

So if you are to teach biology in high school, you need the freedom to teach evolution as it is a sound scientific Theory. Note the word theory, it is not fact nor ideology, but rather a sound scientific theory that explains many things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExceptionHandler

And thats not a good thing? Science can be learned/executed without the presuppositions brought by evolution and millions of years. Why not let the students see actual observable science in action and let them make the logical decision on their own? Id rather my kids use their minds and their own discernment rather than be spoon fed one theology/ideology or another.

This is high school weare talking about here, your kids ability to use their minds to come to rational conclusions is only just developing. Beyond that how much real science can you do in regards to evolution can you do in a high school biology class? High schools are not research institutions. At best teachers have a few days to offer up the theory and move on to the next component of the class.

Quote:

Observability, testability, repeatability, and falsifiability are the hallmarks of the scientific method. I say leave evolution/millions of years out of the books and let kids figure it out on their own... in the end it would make them better problem solvers - force them to figure out what is true instead of just telling them what is true.

You seem to want us to believe that you know all about the scientific method but yet you paint theories as truth. That in itself is a problem because in many sciences it is well know that theories are incomplete or at odds with each other. Evolution can only be properly taught as a theory, your trying to call it fact is just as much non sense as the creationist trying to say intelligent design has scientific credibility.

In any event the whole argument about censorship is valid, we need to know that Apple will not engage in such measures. Not to protect us from crazy ideas like intelligent design but rather to simply keep the flow of information free from the evils of censorship.

Imagine new D&D books that let you create your character within the book and export the file in a format readable by the D&D Insider Character Builder

Or they could create an app for that, for that whole universe even. It could hold all the content from all the books, have character builders, map builders perhaps. If you were 'the Master' you could create the campaign and it would be recorded as people make their moves so if you had to cut short you could pick up where you left off and even review the old stuff. You could connect in folks that might not be in the room via some kind of networking system. Etc.

Exported interaction with these ibooks would be more of the 'make notes etc and be able to export them as an outline, study sheet' type stuff

This looks like it hurts printers and distributors/resellers most. I expect the publishers to make even more money but without all the additional cost of putting out a new printed book every year or two.

I'm glad you got to go to school in a time when education wasn't under attack and teachers had the classroom sizes and resources to give you that great experience.
Today teachers need all the help they can get.

I live two districts away from where I matriculated.

My childhood district and current district both have better teacher:student ratios now then they did when I was in school and the per-student spending is over 2x what is was while administrative costs are flat (yes, inflation adjusted). If I tell you where the vast majority of the increase went to, you can leave the whole "woe be the teachers" attitude at the door (hint: it didn't make it to the students).

I see the benefit of having a tool like this available in the classroom, whether it's for high school or for college.

I had several great instructors in high school, who did the best that they could with videos to get a point across. In the classes that had projectors, they tried power points. Classes that didn't, used that light box with the magnifier that would project it on a white pull down screen. All in all though the instructors did the best they could with the tools that they had. On more than one occation the TV, VCR or Projector wouldn't work and they had to move on to something else.

With a tool like this, an instructor could quite easily present information in a way that is easier to understand. Chemistry? Heck yes that would have helped me! The ability to actually see an atom as a three dimentional object would have helped me immensely. It was a difficult subject for me because I couldn't (at the time) understand how this flat image of valence shells was supposed to be 3 dimentional. All the static pictures in the book didn't make a whole lot of sense at the time.

Biology? Absolutely too! It would be great to read text as I do now, then look at a supplemental video embeded in the program that lets me see what's actually taking place. I do it now with news, read a story, watch the video. Or while reviewing information on photosynthesis, you see a video of what goes on inside the cell while it's still alive.

Crappy teachers will still be crappy teachers because they lack enthusiasm for what they do. The best teachers I had were enthusiastic, maybe not the smartest people on the planet, but they LOVED what they were doing and it showed through in their class instruction.

I just wish this wasn't targeted towards K-12... I could have used some serious relief in my college classes from the stagnant powerpoint lessons or even the cost of text books alone.

Excellent points....

Here's another...

We've all heard of the old saw "Learn by doing"...

A corollary is to "Learn by teaching"...

A new corollary might be "Learn by Authoring"...

Can you imagine iBooks Author in the hands of an interested student!

"Swift generally gets you to the right way much quicker." - auxio -

"The perfect [birth]day -- A little playtime, a good poop, and a long nap." - Tomato Greeting Cards -

The problem is there are only a handful of Steve Jobs types born in each generation. Only a handful of people in any field at any one time have an innate sense of what is "good", "great" or simply "bad". The overwhelming vast majority (as in >95%) of people MUST first live in the box and learn what the box has to teach before stepping out.

Is tech a solution? Only partially. Teaching teachers how to teach and increasing salaries to get good teachers is also critical.

I mostly agree. But when it comes to the pay of teachers, I have a serious problem with the perception that's out there. On the surface, teachers do not get paid a lot. Teachers do not live in mansions - true enough. But teachers do ok. If they are careful with saving money, they can afford a mortgage. Furthermore, they have the whole frigging summer off. They have a good pension plan. And they can obtain tenure without much difficulty! I will go along with paying teachers more if they are willing to give up on some of these securities.

Consider the flip side. Now it will be easier to publish crap and misinformation too. Just look at the internet. In general, I agree this is a good thing but I bet we will soon see beautifully illustrated eBooks on intelligent design.

I love what we can do with technology - but 2 things these new beautiful ENTERTAINING books can not do compared to print.

The Printed form can not BE ALTERED as in present a new point of view of history in education. (I work in the legal field and ROM is still very importatnt)

and 2 - when one day (if) we lose power in society or become poor to the point where we can not access electricty - the printed form is all we will have left.

I am not saying this for doomsday reasons - or to say that only the rich will prosper - its just that everything these days are made with entertainment in mind rather then the educational experience needed that will exercise your mind from the printed text.

of course this will appeal to the youth - and thats how it starts.

Love apple - hate that everything has to be ENTERTAINMENT-ED (if that's a word) just to get someone to read.

One of the major problems with teaching is finding ways to draw kids in, to make them interested and excited about learning. My 6 year old loves school and has no problem being interested in everything, but not all kids are like that, I certainly wasn't. I was bored in school and I bet money that these new style of ebooks would have made things much more interesting.

My granddaughter is autistic. Although she does not interact with people well, she interacts with her iPad more than anything, including the DVD player and the television. She picked up Google somehow. She loves Taco Bell and visits that web site often. I am convinced that using the iPad as an educational tool will aid in her development.

Educational institutions are embracing the iPad every day. Adding this tool for educators will cause in an explosion of iPad use throughout the world. I remember the load of books I had to haul from class to class. Equipped with an iPad I wouldn't have had to carry a pencil. I applaud Apple for the boost they have bestowed to our doctors, scientists, astronauts, teachers, programmers etc. of the future.

I don't see any college books being sold for the ipad any time soon due to the high profits being made as of now.
But could there be "renting" of college books in the future???????
Now that makes more sense and it benefits everyone.

Jesus - I can tell Americans struggle to speak ... seriously the phrase "Falling into disrepair" is now being distorted into "Falling in to disappear" ?? Surely this is a step too far towards stupidity or towards mishearing a well-known phrase in one's youth and then repeating the mistake ad nauseum until all are contamonated... a step even the US is unwilling to take ?? You are already struggling with English - why not take this further step I guess ... may these repeated mistakes not go "nucular" !

The terrible irony is this rampant stupidity and rampant abuse of the English language occurs in a post about education ... EDUCATION, of all things. Good Grief !!

I love what we can do with technology - but 2 things these new beautiful ENTERTAINING books can not do compared to print.

The Printed form can not BE ALTERED as in present a new point of view of history in education. (I work in the legal field and ROM is still very importatnt)

and 2 - when one day (if) we lose power in society or become poor to the point where we can not access electricty - the printed form is all we will have left.

I am not saying this for doomsday reasons - or to say that only the rich will prosper - its just that everything these days are made with entertainment in mind rather then the educational experience needed that will exercise your mind from the printed text.

of course this will appeal to the youth - and thats how it starts.

Love apple - hate that everything has to be ENTERTAINMENT-ED (if that's a word) just to get someone to read.

Yeah but think of the new classroom lexicons... Teacher: "Okay class, swipe to 'such and such' page and when there pinch open the graph on 'whatever' and for homework, watch the video in chapter 999..." Now that's Edu-Entertament!
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Ten years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Today we have no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash.